[omegaworks]

The decision to put the debt of student loan borrowers on the shoulders of taxpayers is entirely political.

The government can simply write off the student debt, with no impact on taxpayers. It has the power to do so.

It may choose not to, because it may choose to make the people that invested in student-loan backed financial instruments whole using a tax.

This can also be accomplished without a tax.

[mrep]

> The government can simply write off the student debt

And now those people have 1.75 trillion dollars more to spend on the economy instead of paying debts which creates inflation which is effectively a tax on everyone with cash and bonds. There is no free lunch with the economy, just distortions.

[omegaworks]

If student spending inflates the economy to the point where there is significant impact on the dollar, what you are saying is we NEED this generation debt-burdened so the rest of us can live decently. If that is true we never really had a functional economy in the first place.

We need to grapple with that truth instead of perpetuating this suffering.

[mrep]

What is your definition of a functional economy? I'm a millennial with a mortgage and a car loan. Should I get free money so I'm not debt-burdened?

[omegaworks]

Congratulations, you will eventually own a house and car. I'm sure you paid quite a handsome price on that house to ensure the people formerly living in it could live off the proceeds for the rest of their lives. What will your peers own when they pay off their student loans?

Banks deemed you creditworthy because you make enough to pay these loans off. We're currently discussing the people that don't make enough to pay their student loans off.

Do you think they should be forever renters? Carless in public transportation deserts?

A functional economy allows people to thrive by participating in it. It is not dependent on an artificially created underclass of people in debt to purchase no asset.

[mrep]

> We're currently discussing the people that don't make enough to pay their student loans off.

If we are only discussing just those people, then I think it is a different story. I could get behind a x% of income over y% of years and if it not paid off in the end it is cancelled deal.

However, usually when I see people talking about cancelling student debt they mean wiping the slate clean for everyone even those who just graduated that can pay.

What type of student loan cancellation program are you thinking we should implement?